— छह हज़ार तेरह —
My Birth Week is coming up fast. It's the week after next! And I'm pretty satisfied with all the stuff I have planned now. My "1976 landmarks" theme was one of the bigger challenges compared to other years in terms of research, but I'm happy with where I've landed.
I did just have to swap out one of my ideas just yesterday, though. I had a source saying the Pike Street Hillclimb was constructed in 1976, but it didn't
open until January 1977, I discovered. As far as I'm concerned, that means it doesn't count. But! And I don't remember how I stumbled upon this, but the Starbucks at Pike Place Market, which is the oldest standing Starbucks in the world, opened in 1976. (People, including Starbucks themselves, try to call it "the original Starbucks," but that actually opened in 1971 in a different building in the Market that wound up demolished. They moved it to the current location in 1976 though, and since it remains the oldest standing store, it counts!) What's kind of funny about this is that I have made fun of all the tourists getting photos at that store, and now I'm going to go and be among them. It'll be for a different reason, but no one who happens to see me there is going to know that. Except maybe anyone who goes there with me. Barbara maybe? I suppose Danielle could be a contender; I haven't scheduled either her or Gabriel for any day besides the party on the 2nd of May—but, that will still qualify them as participants in my Birth Week.
An amusing irony regarding Gabriel is that, after years of shitting on my "Birth Week" as an idea and declaring it stupid, he's actually the single person in my life with the record run of unbroken participation. He has participated in my Birth Week in one way or another since 2003—this year will be his
24th year in a row. (Granted, some years he was at a party I had and did not participate otherwise but that still counts—and in 2024, I included the trip to Lopez Island in lieu of his Bachelor Party because it fit with my islands theme for my Birth Week that year; it was not technically during the 10 days of my Birth Week but it was earlier the same month, and being in keeping with my Birth Week that made it count. Also: I still saw him during my Birth Week that year because that was when his actual wedding happened, on the second Saturday of my Birth Week that year, May 4. I just counted Lopez Island as his participation in the theme—that location choice being a total coincidence.) Anyway, not even Danielle has an unbroken record anymore: due to family drama she wound up unable to hang out during that same "islands" year, in 2024. If not for that, she'd actually be tied with Gabriel with the same unbroken stretch, back to 2003.
The one thing I have worried a little about is the weather. I just checked the Weather app and it currently goes through Friday next week, the first day of my Birth Week—and I was stunned to see a forecast of partly sunny and 80°! Holy shit. Now, a Seattle forecast 10 days out never holds, so we'll see if that changes. But, I'd love it to be dry for the following week. We'll see. My biggest wish is that it not be wet on my actual birthday, when I want to go to Olallie State Park. But also the next day when I go to Freeway Park with Laney; and especially the day after that when my party is happening in Olympia. Any wetness the rest of the time would not be ideal but I could deal with it.
I had been thinking of making my 2027 theme all regional picnic spots. I'm considering bumping that another year down the road for another great idea I recently had: Top 10 Link Light Rail Stations. That one would complicate scheduling with the people who live outside of town, but we'll see. I have to think on it.
— छह हज़ार तेरह —
— छह हज़ार तेरह —
Speaking of rain, it was drizzly on my way to work yesterday and quite rainy for my walk home, so I did not bike to work yesterday. I didn't today either; I took my umbrella to walk with yet again.
Shobhit had a virtual board meeting to attend between 5 and 7 p.m. so I kind of just entertained myself during that time. I dished myself some leftovers and had dinner at my desk in the bedroom, and I killed a good amount of time just googling the best views of all the cities we'll be visiting in Europe this summer: Amsterdam (I found several options here); Rotterdam; The Hague; and Brussels. Not all of them, but several great options I found are actually free and apparently offer fantastic panoramic cityscape views, including a publicly accessible rooftop terrace at the NEMO Science Museum in Amsterdam. I also found an observatory we can apparently go to at the National Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Brussels, barely 2 miles from our hotel, but that one costs €8 (which is currently the equivalent of $9.44 USD, so still pretty cheap).
I have checklists on my phone now for all these cities, which I keep adding to. I've now got 21 items for Amsterdam (we'll be there a combined 13 days, after all); 7 for Rotterdam (this would be a day trip included in the aforementioned 13 days); 6 for The Hague (ditto); and 10 for Brussels (which we're staying in for three nights).
I have just one thing booked so far: the "Hemicycle" at the European Parliament, a guided tour in Brussels. In Amsterdam, though, highest priority on my list is the Anne Frank House, which I cannot book until 6 weeks in advance. Once I do that, though, I will start booking other visits and tours, such as the Van Gogh Museum which I really don't want to miss either.
Anyway. Shobhit finished his meeting, and then I sat with him as he reviewed all the tax stuff online before he finally submitted our taxes. Then at my suggestion, just because I had been wanting to watch it again (I can't even remember when I last watched it), we watched the 1976 film
All the President's Men. I was most astonished, this time around, by how good a movie they made about something that had resulted in the U.S. President resigning less than 2 years before the film was first released. That's nuts. Also there are all the obvious parallels to President Fuckwit, except now we live in a country that just doesn't really give a shit. That line at the end about "maybe the future of the country" kind of hit hard. Because we are now in that future, it it doesn't look great.
But hey, at least I do!
— छह हज़ार तेरह —
[posted 12:32pm]
